Locked
by Flynne Z
Summary: Wounded, hunted and alone, Piper must deal with the consequences of her actions on Christmas Eve. Piper/Alex, Morello/Nikki. Post Season One.
1. Shock

A/N: This is the first time I've ever posted any of my writing, so I'm keen to know what you guys think. I didn't like my first attempt at this chaper so this is sort of a repost. Be kind, I'm new- Zoe

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**Chapter 1: Shock**

The first thing Piper Chapman knew as she started to drift back into consciousness was that the ground below her was cold. She didn't know where she was or how she had even gotten there but she did know that she was absolutely frozen. Forcing her eyelids open, as if waking from a long night of heavy drinking, she allowed her eyes to focus on the room. The lights seared her eyes, causing her to throw her hand up to shield them. As her eyes steadily adjusted, Piper felt the haziness of her mind steadily recede. Blinking slowly, she dimly observed that she was sitting slumped up against one of the shower cubical in the shower room.

And, she was naked. Piper made a face; she was sitting on those foul, fungal harbouring, germ manufacturing shower tiles in the nude. As she looked down at herself, something red and glistening caught her eye.

Blood… a lot of it.

Piper watched as it flowed down her thigh, to her knee, onto her calf and before running down onto the grubby shower tiles beneath her. The shower wasn't on; no hot or cold water ran over her naked body. Just a lot of her own warm, sticky blood and what appeared to be a rather ragged and nasty looking stab wound on her thigh. She frowned down at it…that was not good. She decided fleetingly that had she been a woman of pray, she might have taken this opportunity to do so.

_Doggett had been a praying woman_… a small malevolent voice in reminded her intentionally.

Piper smiled, an expression so pained and far removed from its usual radiance that it would have appeared as a grimace to an onlooker. That she had been, and look where she ended up… lying in the snow, bloody, pulverised, unconscious… dea- she shook her aching head suddenly, the images starting to form a little too much clarity for her liking. No, she would not think about that now. She was not ready to face what she had done and so she forced back the little nagging thoughts, back into the darkest crevices of her mind. Back into the fog. She hoped naively, that she would never have to remember.

Piper licked her lips, the gravity of her situation suddenly all the extant.

She was alone.

In more than one sense. The emptiness of the bathroom echoed the emptiness of her existence and she found this somewhat funny. Life really was a funny thing. Once, Piper Chapman had the world. A fiancé and a lover, a house and a home, a life and life itself…and in the blink of an eye, those worlds were gone. Everything and everyone that she'd loved was gone, and now, Piper sat in a dirty, empty prison shower stall with a stab wound delivered by an ex-junky meth head dressed as an angel armed with a sharpened cross: _hilarious_.

She looked over at her cloths, lying in a bloody pile beside her.

Staring at those cloths, she wondered fleetingly how she'd gotten there in the first place. Shouldn't the halls be crawling with guards? Surely one of them would have seen a severely injured inmate covered in blood staggering down the hallway. Blinking back the fuzziness of her mind, she decided that this too would be something to remember at a different point in time. At this time, she needed to stop the bleeding. Nothing else mattered, everything else she would deal with when the moment came. With a quick nod, and a sudden surge of strength Piper reached up and turned on the shower.

As the freezing cold water ran down over her, it mixed with the blood flowing from her thigh and her stomach. She knew that she should have been applying pressure to the wound, and she also knew that she should probably start washing the blood off her uniform but at that moment Piper could only watch as she was surrounded by swirling red water. Tilting her head to the side until it came to rest gently on the wall beside her; she wondered faintly why it was that she felt no pain.

As this thought idly drifted through her mind, she heard footsteps echo through the bathroom. Her heart gave an abrupt jerk and she came fully alert. Cold terror flooded her veins, and to her horror she let out an involuntary whimper. The footsteps stopped, and Pipers wide eyes flew to the closed curtain in sudden panic. The bathroom was silent, except for the cold water hitting the tiles around her. Time seemed to stand still, her heart rocketing in her ear.

The curtains flew open and Piper closed her eyes.

"_Chapman._"


	2. Panic

A/N: So there were a lot of mistakes in the last chapter, and I think it'll take me a while to get a hang of this editing thing. Please bare with me, and we'll file this under the 'Zoe's having technical difficulties' catagory for now. I don't know if I'll continue with this anyway... we'll see. Loving all the Vause/Chapman love out there by the way. Peace.

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**Chapter 2: Panic**

"Chapman."

Lorna Morello stood in the entrance of the stall, one hand holding a towel and the other clutching the wall beside her. Her eyes immediately fell on the figure huddled in the corner of the stall and her mouth slackened in shock.

Surrounded by a swirling torrent of blood and water, slumped up against the wall with her eyes shut tight was none other than Litchfield's notorious Piper Chapman. Lorna blinked rapidly, her mind not quite comprehending what she was witnessing. Hey eyes flicked down at the bloodly had prints staining shower walls, and then down to the pile of wet cloths; these too were covered in blood.

Finally, she allowed herself to take in Chapman's prone form. Piper was pale, shockingly so. From her vantage point, Lorna could see that Piper had taken a rather nasty wound to the leg. Her arm too was bleeding, and Lorna could also make out some bruising around her ribs. The girl was breathing rapidly, her mouth was slightly parted and Lorna wondered hastily if she were even conscious.

Glancing around, Lorna knew that she needed to act fast. The water flowing over the young woman's body was rapidly washing away the still bleeding leg wound but the Brooklyn girl knew wounds like this could easily make a person bleed out. First, she needed to determine if Piper was conscious. Stepping into the shower, she reached in and shut off the freezing cold water.

This caused Piper to flinch. Crouching down in front of her, she placed her hand gently on the wound and then pressed down firmly. Piper didn't even flinch and Lorna suspected that the shock was keeping the pain receptors in her mind from working properly.

"Chapman, I need you to w-wake up now," she urged, her voice sounding shaky to her own ears. To her relief, to woman's brow creased and her eyelids fluttered open. For a brief moment, Lorna wasn't even sure that Piper recognised her. As their eyes met, she was unnerved by the sheer terror in the blondes' eyes. A wildness fulminated inside Pipers eyes, a ferocity she had never before seen in another person. It shook her to the core.

"What the fuck happened?" Lorna blurted out. As she spoke, Piper blinked and suddenly recognition replaced the terror in her eyes. A strange look washed over her face and she frown slightly at the woman crouched before her in the shower.

"Morello?" Her voice came out in a rasp and she coughed to clear her throat. She reached up to wipe the water off her face and suddenly let out a hiss of pain. Looking down at her hands, Lorna noticed that Pipers knuckles were bruised, raw and bleeding. Recollection flashed over Pipers face and her mouth parted slightly. Her eyes flickered down to the bloody pile of clothes beside her, to the hands pressed firmly over the wound on her thigh before raising to meet Morellos in a jerky motion.

"I think I killed her. I think I killed Doggett"

Lorna felt her hand recoil a little with these words, and panic took her mind. Killed Doggett? Piper killed Doggett? That just wasn't possible. Chapman just wasn't the type for violence. Her eyes locked with Pipers questioningly, and she found herself searching them for the truth. All she found was shock and panic. Blinking rapidly, she moved her hands slightly to get a better view of the wound.

Intensely aware of Pipers watchful eyes, she eyed the torn, swollen skin on Pipers leg, observing as the blood flowed thickly now that it wasn't being washed away. The wound was deep. Whatever made it wasn't just some thin little shive. She looked into Pipers face, wondering how in hell she had even serviced such an attack. For her part, Piper just stared blankly at her.

She was in obvious shock. She needed to be cared for; she needed that wound taken care of. Lorna had once completed a first aid course and she knew that this wasn't something that would just heal by itself. In a place like this, wounds like that would become very easily infected. And then, she would risk blood poisoning. Making up her mind, she gently took Pipers hand and placed it firmly on the wound, instructing her to press down hard. She stood, avoiding Pipers face.

"Hold on. I-I'll get the nurse," she told her reassuringly, and turned quickly on her heal to leave the stall before Piper could disagree.

"NO!"

All of a suddenly, Piper threw herself at Morellos leg, and grabbed onto her ankle. She let out a squeal of surprise as she felt the girl grip onto her ankle and had to catch herself on the stall wall to avoid tripping over. She turned and stared down at Piper as she clutched onto her leg as if it were her only life line. She could have shaken her off easily, however the look of desperation and pain in the woman's eyes stopped her in her tracks. Sympathy filled her heart.

"No, Morello, you can't! Please!" Piper hissed frantically, her eyes more focused than they'd been the entire time they'd sat there.

"But you've been stabbed!" she protested, trying to get the girl to see reason.

"And something much worse will happen to me if you alert the guards," Piper stressed in a low steady voice. She felt herself shrink back, suddenly hesitant. She knew Piper was scared, heck Lorna was scared but she needed to show her reason.

"If we don't get it treated you could die!" she growled, crouching before her. She knew that she was being dramatic, but she needed the woman to understand the severity of her situation.

Piper did not even blink.

"And if you let them know, Healy will find some other way to kill me."

Their eyes met and Lorna knew with growing fear that Piper was telling the truth. Something really bad had happened tonight, and it went way beyond the stab wound. Her heart become heavy as she started to realise that there was a lot more going on here than she had first assumed.

Lorna Morello knew her life was about to get a hell of a lot more complicated.

"Shit, Chapman," she whispered yieldingly, and Piper smiled at her gratefully. She watched as Piper struggled back into her seated position, with a small grunt of pain and they both looked down at the bleeding stab wound.

"I think the shock might be wearing off," she mumbled, and Lorna back at her sympathetically.

"Sorry sweetie, this is gonna hurt."


	3. Guilt

A/N: Wow! Thank you everyone for the reviews! I know it's slow going now, but I promise it'll speed up from here. Don't worry all, I do have a plan... how stable it works out to be well, that's a road we'll have to cross when we get there :) Much love- Z.

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**Chapter 3: Guilt**

"Well, I don't think it hit any major arteries… so, you know, that's good," Morello informed her brightly, inspecting the shredded skin around the stab wound. Piper let out a low hiss as Morello tightened the temporary bandage around her thigh. Glaring at the other woman, she wiped some of the perspiration from her forehead and lowered her eyes to inspect her handy work. The makeshift strap was crafted from a few pieces of fabric torn from her singlet and the lace off one of Morellos boots.

With the restriction on her leg, the flow of blood had started to lessen much to the relief of both inmates. However, with every passing moment the shock and adrenaline were quickly wearing away. Piper could feel the haziness being replaced with a dull ache and it was intensifying fast. She knew that if she did not get up soon, she would not be able to walk. If she could not walk, she was as good a caught anyway.

Soon, the guards would find Doggett and then the prison would be thrown into full scale alert. Every inmate accounted for, every bunk raided and every suspect brought into questioning. Piper had no doubts about who would be on the top of that list. She felt as though a pendulum swung vicariously over her head, it was only a matter of time before they came for her. And when they did, they would charge her for what could quite possibly be manslaughter.

She glanced at Morello, a sudden guilt welling up inside her. Did this make her an accessory to murder? Should she send her away now… would she be able to do this by herself? Would she be able to live with herself, knowing that she had condemned a person for helping her get away with possible murder?

Morello seemed to be oblivious to the blond's moral tidings as she shuffled around to get a better look at the cut on her bicep.

"This one's already stopped, but it's real puffy," she informed her, and she set to work ripping off more of the shredded singlet. Finally managing to tear the rest in half, she wrapped the material around the wound and she finished it off with a tight knot, nodding to herself in approval.

Morello then stood up and took the hem of her over-shirt, pulling it up over her head. Piper frowned and stared at the other inmate in confusion. Rolling her eyes, the dark haired woman stripped off her white long sleaved undershirt and simple threw them both to Piper. She then stood in her bra and placed both hands on her hips expectantly.

"You wanna be wearing bloody cloths outta here?" Morello quipped, her eyebrows raised.

With a small 'Oh', Piper pulled the undershirt over her head and managed to get her uninjured arm through the sleeve. She found that she was having difficulty raising the other one, and Morello moved in the help her. Once they had managed to dress her in both shirts, Morello picked up Pipers pants and frowned at them. The pants seemed to have taken most of the blood splatter, and there was a rather large pool of red around the thigh of the left leg where she'd been wounded. There was no way that they would be able to wash it out completely with water alone and then drying it was another issue all together.

"Well, the bad news is it looks like you butchered a cow," the darker haired woman teased, with a little smirk. Piper glared down hard at the shower tiles and gritted her teeth as her leg gave a deep aching throb of pain. If this were what she had to look forward to for tonight, Piper knew that she would have a long night ahead of her.

"What's the good?" she grumbled back in a dull voice, feeling slightly nauseated at the sight of the bloodied pants in her counterparts hands.

With a patient smile, Morello walked out of the stall and for a few moments Piper simply stared out into the empty bathroom. The bathroom was silent once more, and a slight unease fell over Piper. They were taking too long. It was a major miracle that no one had found Doggett yet, let alone walked into the bathroom. The Christmas dinner must surely be finishing off soon; they simply couldn't risk anyone else finding them like this. Reappearing again, the dark haired woman was now dressed in her sleeping nightgown, her own pants draped over her arm.

"I wear nighties to bed. You can wear my pants 'cause, you know, I think we're about the same size," she mumbled, and crouched down at Pipers feet. She managed to pull the pant legs up and over her knees before she stopped to check if the bandage on the wound was leaking any blood. Satisfied that it would hold out until they could find some pads back at Pipers bunk, Morello helped her pull the pants up as high as they would go. Lifting her bottom up was difficult and by the time they had managed to wriggle them up and over her hips, perspiration had appeared on Pipers brow.

"Alright, I think… I need to get up," Piper forced herself to say, though the pain was already enough to keep her wishing that she could just stay in the shower stall forever. The pain in her leg was now being accompanied by a sharp pain in side, and she predicted that she might have had a broken rib or two.

With the wall on one side and Morello lifting on the other, Piper managed to shift the uninjured left let underneath her. Even though she had barely moved it, the right awash with the agonising throbbing and for a moment the blond felt herself sway. Morello was strangely silent beside her, but Piper could feel as she gave her shoulder a supportive squeeze. At that moment, Piper was eternally grateful and she clenched her teeth, finding the inner strength to push through the pain.

"Alright… on three," she hissed through gritted teeth, and Morello simply nodded.

"One."

"Two," Morello whispered, firmly gripping Pipers waist. They glanced at each other and then, as if they'd both shouted the number, they struggled as one like some awkward creature rising unsteadily to its feet.

Piper had never experienced such incredible pain in her life. Spots claimed her vision, and she let out a low moan, tilting on the spot. Morello was ready for her and quickly threw Pipers arm around her smaller shoulders. Piper leaned into her, supporting her weight on her good left leg. For a moment, the two stood like this. Gradually the pain started to lessen, until only the angry throbbing remained. When she was sure she would not fall, the blond looked down into the other womans concerned eyes and nodded, no trusting herself to speak.

Morello indicated for Piper to hold onto the wall, and pointed down at Pipers discarded pile of clothes lying on the floor still. Getting the picture, Piper hopped outside the stall and leant her back against the wall. Blinking away the pain, Piper gripped onto the wall and watched as the smaller woman collected up her bloodied clothes and switched on the water. Washing as much of the drying blood from the material, she rung them out and proceeded to shove them into her own laundry bag with her towel.

Piper gave her a strange look, finally understanding that there was no turning back for Morello now either. They were both guilty now. She knew she had to say something, even though she knew that if she opened her mouth right now, she would either scream or throw up.

"Morello… thank you. I don't think… I don't know if I'd be able to-"

"Nope. Save the mushy stuff, doll. We're not out of the woods yet." Morello said with a grim smile, before throwing her arm around waist. Draping her uninjured left arm around the raven haired woman's shoulders, she eyes set forward in determination and breathed in slowly.

_Let the hell begin._


	4. Trouble

A/N: I know these are going on at a snails pace, but I'm planning a whole lot more chapters. Alex and Nichols coming up, I promise. I wanted to set establish a better Piper and Morello friendship before bringing in the great drama of their respective relationsips. It's slow at the moment, but when she's out of imediate danger, that's when it'll get more interesting. Thanks to everyone for staying with me :D Happy readings! -Z

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**Chapter 4: Trouble**

"You haven't asked me yet?" Piper mumbled, as she prepared herself to step forward onto her injured leg again. Lorna glanced at the blonde woman, before shuffling her feet forward to counterbalance the other inmates weight.

They had made in half way to Chapman bunk, in surprisingly little time considering that the injured woman could hardly weight bare on her right leg. In that time, they had largely managed to avoid suspicion from the few other inmates they had encounter by hugging to the walls and separating whenever someone came past them. Even the CO that had stopped to ask Piper why she was not wearing her shoes, let them pass with a warning when Lorna explained that they had been soaked in the shower. Lorna had never felt so much trepidation in her life. She knew that if they were to be caught now, she would be held as an accomplice of whatever Chapman had done to Doggett, but she was past the point of no return. She had found her bleeding, she had given her her own clothes to wear and now, she was helping her to get away with it. And it was becoming increasingly risky to do so.

As they had first exited the shower block, a large inmate with short blond hair appeared around the corner, causing them both to freeze in sheer terror. Without so much as a glance, the woman stalked past them and into the shower. They had both let out a sigh of relief, and were just preparing to start off once more when a voice from behind caused them both to jump in alarm.

"You forget something?" the woman muttered in a deep voice, and held up a pair of size 10 boots. Lorna had glanced down at Chapmans feet with what must have been one of the strangest of looks, before thanking her with genuine relief. Grabbing the boots off the woman, they had both turned and headed off, huddled together in a slow march of solidarity. Behind them, the larger inmate shook her head and walked back into the showers, before muttering "Fucking lesbians".

For the most part, Chapman was silent. Not so much as a grunt of pain had escaped her mouth since the bathroom. Lorna could tell by the set of her jaw and the perspiration coating her face that the other inmate was in a world of pain. But the blond was determined, resolute in such a way that Lorna was slowly coming to respect her in a whole new way.

As she placed her injured leg down, and immediately followed in through with the left leg, Lorna remembered that Chapman had spoken to her.

"Asked you what?" She grunted back, avoiding eye contact with Wendy, a Golden Girl Lorna had met driving the van, as she shuffled past them. Wendy raised an eye brow at them and shook her head as she headed off towards her own bunk. They turned the corner and stopped, Lorna allowing time for Chapman to rest. She had not asked to do so once, but Lorna had noticed the way the other inmate had started to tremble bodily as the pain and blood loss started to creep up on her. She was certain that whatever adrenaline high the blond had been riding in the bathroom, had long ago abandoned her to the pain.

"How it happened."

"I know how it happened," Lorna replied with a snort, coming to lean on the wall next to her with her arms folded. She looked straight ahead, but she could feel that the blonds face was awash with surprise. She turned to look at her and smirked shrewdly.

"Oh, it ain't really no mystery. She got up in your face, you got back in hers, and she tried to get square. This is jail, doll, not 221 Bakers St," she said, giving her a withered look. Chapman blinked at her with a frown, before something caught her eye. Her eyes widened slightly and she looked past her, causing Lorna to follow her line of sight. She felt her heart catch in her throat, and could only stand and watch with growing fear.

Coming directly towards them in long, fast strides, was the new CO Wayne Griggs. As he made a beeline for the two frozen inmates, his dark eyes locked unwaveringly at Pipers. Unease washed over Lorna as his pace stared to slow, and the feeling only intensified as he reached for his baton. Griggs was a big man, tall muscular with a blond crew cut and goatee. Word from the rumour mill had it that he had been suspended from the men's Federal prison for bashing an inmate into a coma.

Resting his hand on his weapon he gave Lorna a quick once over, which caused her to drop her gaze in some archaic form of submission. With a small twitch of his lips, his eyes fell sharply onto Pipers once more. To her surprise, the blonde beside her did not even blink.

"Inmate, are you above regulation?" he asked, his voice loud and strident, and it instantly reminded Lorna of a drill sergeants.

"No sir," Piper replied clearly, a sudden strength to her voice that Lorna had not heard since she had found her in the shower stall. She frowned, but daren't to look up at the two. Although she was pleased to hear Piper sounding more like herself, she felt with a certain unease, that this was a time for extreme caution.

"Does this look like your allocated dorm, Inmate?" Griggs asked in his drill sergeants voice, and Lorna felt herself begin to fidget.

"No sir."

"Then why are your boot not on your feet, prisoner? You are in a prison, inmate! Loitering in the hallway with no shoes on will not be tolerated, do you understand me? It looks to me like you're just looking for trouble tonight, Chapman" he sneered, and Lornas heart began to sink. Piper stayed quiet this time, sensing that the CO would not be satisfied with any answer she gave him. A heavy silence fell over them all.

The big man stood in front of them, eyeing them both intently. Lorna had a bad feeling about this CO. He was taking too much time to chastise them, clearing enjoyed watching them squirm and the comment about trouble seemed to be too loaded to be coincidental. Could he possibly know? Her grip on the laundry bag tightened and she hazarded a glance at him. She was startled as she lifted her eyes, to find her gaze locked with his. There was something in his look, something akin to a predatory hunger that set Lorna's teeth on edge. Shuddering, she looked down and frowned.

Relief flooded her body, when suddenly she heard a crackle, and then a voice come through his walkie-talkie.

"_Check in twenty-five, mess closed in five, over."_

Griggs glanced around as more inmates started to appear, clearly returning back from the Christmas dinner and seemed to glower. Lorna knew with more witnesses, Griggs would say no more and had to fight to hold back a relieved sigh. With a scathing glare at the two, the big man stepped back away from them and squared his shoulders.

"Get to your dorms, both of you!" he growled, shooting them one last glare before he turned on his heel. Without so much as a glance behind him, he marched down the corridor and disappeared around the corner. The sound of laughter and talking filled the corridors as more inmates started to head back to their dorms for count.

Lorna let out a long shaky breath, and moved her hand up to cover her eyes.

"Well, that was close."

Lorna removed her hand and stared at Piper incredulously. They looked at one another for a moment, before erupting into a chorus of laughter.

_Close_ didn't even come close.


End file.
